I've been trying out the beta for this simple application from Stardock that allows you to organize your desktop icons. It doesn't seem to have any major effect on performance, much like some of Stardocks other software (Dreamscene comes to mind), and though the concept behind this software is reasonably simple, I'd imagine it to be quite useful.

Basically, Fences allows you to place the icons on your desktop into groups. The controls to add and remove your Fences are very easy to get used to, and the instructions the program provides are intuitive and non-intrusive.

Screenshots (click to enlarge):


There are only two problems I have with it at this stage.

The first is a lack of arrangement options when I right-click (in Windows XP, haven't tried in Vista/7). I need to browse to the Desktop folder to arrange the icons by type or name, etc.

The second is creating a fence over another fence causes the items I select to be placed in the new fence after I type in a name. If I click cancel, the icons return to my destop, rather than back to the original fence.

Stardock: Fences
Download Stardock Fences (6.4MB)

System Requirements:
Windows XP, Vista, 7

I don't see the usefulness of this

Does it just make a border around some icons?

I group my icons already by placing them together on different areas of the desktop, I don't need some fancy border to let me know which icons are related

Am I missing some great feature here?

I also dont see the point. Although, I like to keep my desktop empty so meh

P4 Wrote:I don't see the usefulness of this

Does it just make a border around some icons?

I group my icons already by placing them together on different areas of the desktop, I don't need some fancy border to let me know which icons are related

Am I missing some great feature here?

I did say it was simple, but it makes for a more effective way of organizing the icons on your desktop. I don't think being able to arrange your icons by their attributes and being able to move them to different areas of your desktop is as convenient because behaviors when you apply the arrangements still apply to every desktop icon. The idea behind the grouping is, or at least should be (it's still a beta version), that you can change something about one group of icons without having the change apply to the rest. Some might also find convenience in the ability to apply labels to sets of icons, but perhaps this doesn't apply to our friend, the Berrinator.

The hide features can also allow you to control which icons are displayed or hidden, in case you only want a certain set of icons to be available to you or someone else.

I can understand what you mean. Most of the UI software that Stardock makes is equally useless in that sense. I mean, how does Dreamscene help you?
I think people would be a lot more impressed if something like this was included in an OS and not a separate application, however light it might be. Having said that, it's not like they expect you to pay for it.

My god. Why has no one mentioned that this looks like a splitting image of the KDE4 desktop plasmoid?
I'm not trollin' here, but come on.

Pretty cool utility though, it's amazing how much you can bend such a closed source operating system to your will.

This is about as useful as Waynes python script to find out if a number is positive or negative

P4 Wrote:This is about as useful as Waynes python script to find out if a number is positive or negative

## Original Number
number = input("Enter a number: ")

if number > 0:
print "Your number is a positive number!"

if number is 2:
print "Your number is equal to two!!!!"

if number < 0:
print "Your number is a negative number!"


raw_input('press Return>')

Wayne Wrote:

P4 Wrote:This is about as useful as Waynes python script to find out if a number is positive or negative

## Original Number
number = input("Enter a number: ")

if number > 0:
print "Your number is a positive number!"

if number is 2:
print "Your number is equal to two!!!!"

if number < 0:
print "Your number is a negative number!"


raw_input('press Return>')

This script is not fair and balanced. If you were to enter the number 2, the yield would consist of two results, yet any other number would receive but 50% of that attention. How dare you neglect every number other than 2 in such a way! Why can't all numbers be equal?

Furthermore, where is the clause that yields an error for non-numerical entries?

Wayne Wrote:

P4 Wrote:This is about as useful as Waynes python script to find out if a number is positive or negative

## Original Number
number = input("Enter a number: ")

if number > 0:
print "Your number is a positive number!"

if number is 2:
print "Your number is equal to two!!!!"

if number < 0:
print "Your number is a negative number!"


raw_input('press Return>')

> if number is 2:
> if number is
> number is
> is

IT BURNS

what about poor little zero it gets no love